Breck Epic: Stage 3 - Mt. Guyot Circumvention
I still had trouble sleeping the night before. uugghh...I did finally drift off to sleep and 5am came WAY too soon. Yesterday I had been tired but felt ok. This morning I woke up with *very* sore legs. ouchy! I thought about taking some Advil - I had heard that endurance runners pop that stuff like candy during their long races. But since I rarely take Advil - I thought it best ask Lynda. I felt bad texting her so early expecting a response sometime later. But she responded immediately "no - advil reduces blood flow. Only take it if you have a sore knee or something like that. Just start slow and try to spin them out."
Sonya had warned me this was a big day. I knew there were be quite a bit of hike-a-bike for the circumvention of Mt. Guyot and the CT descent is chunky at the bottom so today I wanted the Era.
At the start was the usual chit-chat. Jeff Kerkove was doing the 3-dayer and he looked over my bike. He said "whoa! you are running a 42/28 for your 2 chainrings? that's crazy! I can't push gearing that hard." I was like ??. Jeesh...no WONDER I was struggling on the steep climbs. Jeff is WAY stronger(and younger) than I am - so no wonder I was liking the hardtail gearing so much. I thought I was struggling because the Era weighs 2.5lbs more than the hardtail but now I had an idea of WHY i liked the gearing so much on the hardtail. man - how lame of me to not question my gearing. When I ordered the parts the bike shop guy told me it was equivalent to my 9-speed gearing and I never really calculated the ratios myself. BUT I certainly didn't need to hear this right now.
Also, I got a chance to finally meet Alison Jones. It was the lady with the gravity dropper on her bike. We chatted a bit - she was from Canada and was really nice. I told her how impressed I was with her pounding out the hard miles and sticking with it. She talked about being slow and I said "well...i'm not setting any speed records" then she said "yeah - but you got a stranglehold on that leaders jersey". I didn't know how to respond to that and just smiled and shrugged.
Of course the day started with a climb and I let the gearing info get in my head and annoy me - as I struggled up some steep pitches I was thinking 'dang! i shouldn't be pushing a gear this hard' I knew the negative thinking wouldn't help me any so I tried to focus on better thoughts. Then I realized that Lynda was right - after I got started my legs loosened up and felt ok. Actually I was surprised that didn't feel as bad as I expected. But I was riding my all day endurance pace. This is something I was wondering about - I wondered if I should try to push harder and finish in less time - but since my #1 goal was to complete the race AND I still had 4 days of riding (including today) that I would continue the endurance pace.
I rode a bit with the big, strapping red head from the day before. His name was Chris - he was a 3-dayer from Santa Cruz. The altitude really got to him yesterday and today it was still putting the hurt on him. I wished him a good day as i rode away from him. During the climb to Little French Gulch I felt on the verge of cramping. At aid 1 I popped some electrolytes and saw in dismay I didn't have a water bottle in my aid bag. I like to have nuun electrolytes in my water bottle - I had the nuun tablets in my aid bag but not a water bottle to put them in. I asked around for an extra water bottle and another racer generously gave me his empty bottle.
Then off to the Mt. Guyot hike-a-bike. I ended up riding with Jim (the aforementioned CT switchback guy from the day before) - Molly was way ahead on the hike-a-bike. Jim was a 3-dayer from WI. He was having trouble with his rear brake - knowing the techy descents coming up I told him to be careful. Jim and I completed the hike-a-bike together and since he was descending without a rear brake - I left him behind. The descent off French Pass included a snowfield (which i walked) and an interesting wobbly log crossing over a creek - then a fun loose rocky descent. I caught up to Molly here and rode off in search of Aid 2.
As usual Mike was there with a smile and his camera. I still felt on the verge of cramping so I downed 3 Endrolytes and loaded up my borrowed water bottle with nuun. next up was a 4 mile climb to Georgia Pass - it was getting cloudy and I wanted to get over the pass before a thunderstorm hit. As I rolled out of Aid 2 - Molly and Jim rode into the aid station as I was leaving. I kept expecting Molly to catch me on the 50 minute climb but I never she never did. I was anxious to hit the CT descent. It's one of my favorite descents with a nice little rock garden at the bottom. About half-way down it started raining and hailing. the hail was finding it's way through the slots on my helmet and stinging my scalp pretty good. I tried to pick up the pace hoping to get down before the rocks got too wet. Alas - it started getting slippery and i felt like a little pinball as my tires slipped off the roots and rocks and I marveled I was keeping the bike upright. Normally this would be super fun for me but as it got more rocky and slipperly I got more cautious not wanting to crash - so i ended up walking the lower part. As slippery as it was -even walking was treacherous.
After the descent one more Aid station and the "oh f#Ck" climb of American Gulch. I kept downing the electrolytes and nuun as it seemed the cramps kept threating to appear but then never did. I just kept trucking along at my endurance pace slowly ticking off the miles.
I finally crossed French Gulch Road and knew the finish should be close then I got routed on some singletrack I had never ridden before and it seemed to be taking me AWAY from the finish. I thought the last part to the finish was supposed to be double-track and this was honest-to-goodness singletrack. It was fun singletrack but I didn't see any course markers for over 2 miles and I just KNEW i had gone the wrong way. ugghh!!! If you don't ride the correct course then you are a DNF. I DID NOT want that to happen so I prepared myself to have to ride back to the last known intersection in order to go the correct way. I was really concerned about this as 3 miles clicked by without any course marking. Then FINALLY i saw a course marking to the finish and finally rolled in. I still wasn't sure I had ridden the course correctly but since i was routed through the finishing gates I had to assume I had ridden the course correctly.
This was a long day of over 7 hours. I was happy to be finished and happy i held the cramps at bay. But considering how I felt this morning I was concerned about tomorrow - which was the day with the most miles and the most elevation gain.
Trisha was waiting at the finish. I can't even say how great this was to know she'd be there - a big moral booster for sure. I am so lucky that my sister just happens to be my bested friend in the world.
I texted Lynda about the almost cramping and she told me to eat a salty dinner and do some light stretching.
When looking at the results I saw that I was ~1.5 hours faster than Alison today - which bumped up my lead to 3.5 hours. I still felt a little guilty about the advantages I had while training but at the same time - I didn't want to give up the leaders jersey. I vowed to myself to ride smart the next 3 days. I saw that Sonya had a rough day with a flat and c02 that wouldn't work and she finished 2nd in the stage (6 minutes behind Selene) but she still was 1st in the GC. I was relived to see that.
At the racer meeting the racer that loaned me the water bottle asked if I had it. It was his Leadville 100 water bottle and it had sentemential value. I was like 'ughh...yikes! I'm not sure where it is' The Trisha pipped up and said she saw it on my bike back at the apt. We told him we'd wash it and put in in his aid bag in the morning. Trisha then asked him if he wanted anything in it(thinking maybe water or energy drink) and he said 'yeah - a thousand dollars'. We laughed at that.
After eating a salty dinner. I went to bed and 9pm and FELL RIGHT to sleep - thank goodness!!!
Sonya had warned me this was a big day. I knew there were be quite a bit of hike-a-bike for the circumvention of Mt. Guyot and the CT descent is chunky at the bottom so today I wanted the Era.
At the start was the usual chit-chat. Jeff Kerkove was doing the 3-dayer and he looked over my bike. He said "whoa! you are running a 42/28 for your 2 chainrings? that's crazy! I can't push gearing that hard." I was like ??. Jeesh...no WONDER I was struggling on the steep climbs. Jeff is WAY stronger(and younger) than I am - so no wonder I was liking the hardtail gearing so much. I thought I was struggling because the Era weighs 2.5lbs more than the hardtail but now I had an idea of WHY i liked the gearing so much on the hardtail. man - how lame of me to not question my gearing. When I ordered the parts the bike shop guy told me it was equivalent to my 9-speed gearing and I never really calculated the ratios myself. BUT I certainly didn't need to hear this right now.
Also, I got a chance to finally meet Alison Jones. It was the lady with the gravity dropper on her bike. We chatted a bit - she was from Canada and was really nice. I told her how impressed I was with her pounding out the hard miles and sticking with it. She talked about being slow and I said "well...i'm not setting any speed records" then she said "yeah - but you got a stranglehold on that leaders jersey". I didn't know how to respond to that and just smiled and shrugged.
Of course the day started with a climb and I let the gearing info get in my head and annoy me - as I struggled up some steep pitches I was thinking 'dang! i shouldn't be pushing a gear this hard' I knew the negative thinking wouldn't help me any so I tried to focus on better thoughts. Then I realized that Lynda was right - after I got started my legs loosened up and felt ok. Actually I was surprised that didn't feel as bad as I expected. But I was riding my all day endurance pace. This is something I was wondering about - I wondered if I should try to push harder and finish in less time - but since my #1 goal was to complete the race AND I still had 4 days of riding (including today) that I would continue the endurance pace.
I rode a bit with the big, strapping red head from the day before. His name was Chris - he was a 3-dayer from Santa Cruz. The altitude really got to him yesterday and today it was still putting the hurt on him. I wished him a good day as i rode away from him. During the climb to Little French Gulch I felt on the verge of cramping. At aid 1 I popped some electrolytes and saw in dismay I didn't have a water bottle in my aid bag. I like to have nuun electrolytes in my water bottle - I had the nuun tablets in my aid bag but not a water bottle to put them in. I asked around for an extra water bottle and another racer generously gave me his empty bottle.
Then off to the Mt. Guyot hike-a-bike. I ended up riding with Jim (the aforementioned CT switchback guy from the day before) - Molly was way ahead on the hike-a-bike. Jim was a 3-dayer from WI. He was having trouble with his rear brake - knowing the techy descents coming up I told him to be careful. Jim and I completed the hike-a-bike together and since he was descending without a rear brake - I left him behind. The descent off French Pass included a snowfield (which i walked) and an interesting wobbly log crossing over a creek - then a fun loose rocky descent. I caught up to Molly here and rode off in search of Aid 2.
 |
| Mike Kane catching me smiling and restocking @ Aid 2 |
As usual Mike was there with a smile and his camera. I still felt on the verge of cramping so I downed 3 Endrolytes and loaded up my borrowed water bottle with nuun. next up was a 4 mile climb to Georgia Pass - it was getting cloudy and I wanted to get over the pass before a thunderstorm hit. As I rolled out of Aid 2 - Molly and Jim rode into the aid station as I was leaving. I kept expecting Molly to catch me on the 50 minute climb but I never she never did. I was anxious to hit the CT descent. It's one of my favorite descents with a nice little rock garden at the bottom. About half-way down it started raining and hailing. the hail was finding it's way through the slots on my helmet and stinging my scalp pretty good. I tried to pick up the pace hoping to get down before the rocks got too wet. Alas - it started getting slippery and i felt like a little pinball as my tires slipped off the roots and rocks and I marveled I was keeping the bike upright. Normally this would be super fun for me but as it got more rocky and slipperly I got more cautious not wanting to crash - so i ended up walking the lower part. As slippery as it was -even walking was treacherous.
After the descent one more Aid station and the "oh f#Ck" climb of American Gulch. I kept downing the electrolytes and nuun as it seemed the cramps kept threating to appear but then never did. I just kept trucking along at my endurance pace slowly ticking off the miles.
I finally crossed French Gulch Road and knew the finish should be close then I got routed on some singletrack I had never ridden before and it seemed to be taking me AWAY from the finish. I thought the last part to the finish was supposed to be double-track and this was honest-to-goodness singletrack. It was fun singletrack but I didn't see any course markers for over 2 miles and I just KNEW i had gone the wrong way. ugghh!!! If you don't ride the correct course then you are a DNF. I DID NOT want that to happen so I prepared myself to have to ride back to the last known intersection in order to go the correct way. I was really concerned about this as 3 miles clicked by without any course marking. Then FINALLY i saw a course marking to the finish and finally rolled in. I still wasn't sure I had ridden the course correctly but since i was routed through the finishing gates I had to assume I had ridden the course correctly.
This was a long day of over 7 hours. I was happy to be finished and happy i held the cramps at bay. But considering how I felt this morning I was concerned about tomorrow - which was the day with the most miles and the most elevation gain.
Trisha was waiting at the finish. I can't even say how great this was to know she'd be there - a big moral booster for sure. I am so lucky that my sister just happens to be my bested friend in the world.
I texted Lynda about the almost cramping and she told me to eat a salty dinner and do some light stretching.
I was getting better at the podium pose.
When looking at the results I saw that I was ~1.5 hours faster than Alison today - which bumped up my lead to 3.5 hours. I still felt a little guilty about the advantages I had while training but at the same time - I didn't want to give up the leaders jersey. I vowed to myself to ride smart the next 3 days. I saw that Sonya had a rough day with a flat and c02 that wouldn't work and she finished 2nd in the stage (6 minutes behind Selene) but she still was 1st in the GC. I was relived to see that.
At the racer meeting the racer that loaned me the water bottle asked if I had it. It was his Leadville 100 water bottle and it had sentemential value. I was like 'ughh...yikes! I'm not sure where it is' The Trisha pipped up and said she saw it on my bike back at the apt. We told him we'd wash it and put in in his aid bag in the morning. Trisha then asked him if he wanted anything in it(thinking maybe water or energy drink) and he said 'yeah - a thousand dollars'. We laughed at that.
After eating a salty dinner. I went to bed and 9pm and FELL RIGHT to sleep - thank goodness!!!
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